Spring 2024 DLC Speculation

Where they said about this new console port?
Also planet coaster got new updates when console version was released?
No confirmation its Zoo but they have said they are announcing a PC port to console for a game in the next few weeks.

There are only 2 Frontier games PC exclusive right now-
Planet Zoo
Great War Western Front (foundry title that really did not do well)

They say the pc to console port will.be for a successful game so everything points towards planet zoo

Let's see...
 
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Where they said about this new console port?
Also planet coaster got new updates when console version was released?
Newest financial report details a pc game is getting a console port in the coming weeks (announcement for the port not the actual release). Speculation for a pc exclusive game not yet on console points fingers to planet zoo over failed alternatives under the frontier foundry title. Planet coaster for consoles got no meaningful updates as support wrapped up in 2019, a year later the console version was released.
 
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I really don’t think that „renewed focus” on their CMS games that is getting them back on track means the end of support for PZ in any way. It’s rather a promise of more support. Just sayin’ 🙂
 
Is it harder to make DLCs or something after a console release? Asking because I actually do not understand why that would mean the end of DLCs.
From a technical standpoint, it depends on their process. They'd at least have to get one or more devs on the team that develops the DLCs, so the costs of making a DLC might go up; but it's not sure if that's really going to be substantial.

The question is not really "is it harder to make DLCS when you also have a console version" but more "is it more profitable to do a console port than to do another year of creating DLCs". Because, at the end of the day, making a DLC is a costly process that involves many disciplines. You need project managers, research teams (both market and for the ingame stuff), animators, coders for new features, riggers, modellers, texture artists, etc. etc. With a console port, all your assets are already there and a huge portion of that team is no longer required.

Given that there certainly is a market for a console release ( anyone who has been on social media or on the streams has seen the demand for it), it might just really be cheaper for them to do a port to console than to keep making new DLCs. They'd still get a steady stream of income, at a much lower cost.

That being said, nothing has been fully confirmed but as @Captain Callum has pointed out, there's really not much left in their portfolio in terms of "successful PC games" that don't have a console version atm, so PZ is the most likely candidate.

I really don’t think that „renewed focus” on their CMS games that is getting them back on track means the end of support for PZ in any way. It’s rather a promise of more support. Just sayin’ 🙂
I don't think it's fair to use that paragraph as "a promise for more support". You're leaving out important context from the other financial documents in which they specifically stated that they are moving back to CMS games and that they are releasing several ones over the next 3 years. Frontier has been successful at making CMS games and has stated so in their financial documents, in the same vain they've admitted that their other games that are not within that genre are not doing as well as they expected.

It's much more a statement towards their shareholders that they're moving back their focus to CMS games than promising they're going to keep supporting their current slate of CMS games. Regardless of my stance on the likelyness of the game getting more PDLC, I think it's important to give the full context of that statement.

Regardless, "more DLC" might be what the community sees as more support; but that doesn't mean that a console port in itself isn't a form of more support. It's just not the kind of support people here are hoping for. So this renewed focuss could also be "hey, we're making more CMS games and we're porting our only non console CMS game to console as well".

Guys this is the first financial results where they have not said about future dlc for PZ or JWE2. Normally they say more dlc throughout the financial year or something.... this is worrying
This is honestly a much weirder thing than we've been giving it credit for. These financial documents have always been a way to let their shareholders/investors know what their plans are. With how nervous those have been and the financial state of the company, if they had more PDLC confirmed for this entire year; why haven't they said so? Like, they say both JWE2 and PZ are their main sources of money atm and in the past they've always included statements that explicitly pointed towards more PDLC... and now they don't?

If they're keeping that a secret, now of all times feels like the weirdest time to do so. It does not make sense why they wouldn't explicitly mention more PDLC for both games like they did in the past years if they are indeed working on more PDLC. If anything, if you are indeed planning on additional DLCs, explicitly telling so would give your (potential) investors the confidence you need them to have.

Again, I stand by what I've always said. The lack of explicit confirmation ( which, to make it clear, is something amongst the lines of "PDLC in FY25" or "PDLC throughout CY24") does not have to mean that there's not more PDLC in the coming year. But if they are giving us more, and they're not annoucing it, then it's really weird that they're doing it.
 
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I really don’t think that „renewed focus” on their CMS games that is getting them back on track means the end of support for PZ in any way. It’s rather a promise of more support. Just sayin’ 🙂
Here's the thing. In all past reports they've been pretty explicit about ongoing support. And if they were planning to continue support via PDLC... It would be an odd thing to leave out additional PDLC given who these reports are actually meant for (i.e., investors). There's reasons they may have left it out, I guess, but it's a weird thing not to explicitly say that you're going to continue supporting your two biggest sellers if that's the plan...

I read that "renewed focus" bit as being about CMS games in general like they discussed in the prior report. With a console edition of one on the way and a new one in development. Keeping in mind that their team has been reduced in recent months.

I really hope this isn't the case. But I'm just being realistic based on the information that we have in our hands to date.
 
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I really don’t think that „renewed focus” on their CMS games that is getting them back on track means the end of support for PZ in any way. It’s rather a promise of more support. Just sayin’ 🙂
I don't know if that really is supposed to mean explicitly support for planet zoo. Renewed support for CMS games is likely meaning all near future projects are new cms games, elsewhere in the report states frontier's main profit sources are from successful cms games which frontier has proven to be a market leader with. Planet Zoo is just being used as an example of a successful game which new projects will attract new investors.
 
This is honestly a much weirder thing than we've been giving it credit for. These financial documents have always been a way to let their shareholders/investors know what their plans are. With how nervous those have been and the financial state of the company, if they had more PDLC confirmed for this entire year; why haven't they said so? Like, they say both JWE2 and PZ are their main sources of money atm and in the past they've always included statements that explicitly pointed towards more PDLC... and now they don't?

If they're keeping that a secret, now of all times feels like the weirdest time to do so. It does not make sense why they wouldn't explicitly mention more PDLC for both games like they did in the past years if they are indeed working on more PDLC. If anything, if you are indeed planning on additional DLCs, explicitly telling so would give your (potential) investors the confidence you need them to have.

Again, I stand by what I've always said. The lack of explicit confirmation ( which, to make it clear, is something amongst the lines of "PDLC in FY25" or "PDLC throughout CY24") does not have to mean that there's not more PDLC in the coming year. But if they are giving us more, and they're not annoucing it, then it's really weird that they're doing it.
This. 100%. The audience for these reports are the investors who primarily care about what will or won't make them money. So it's odd to not mention that you plan on providing more PDLC for your two biggest sellers... There may be a reason to leave it out (e.g., optics, spacing) but any reason I can think of feels like a stretch because you're talking about a single sentence in a multi-page document that says: "We'll continue to support these titles with PDLC and additional content throughout FY24" or whatever.

I think the real tell will be in the announcement of the console version. If it's Planet Zoo, and they plan on continued support/PDLC, I'd imagine they would say so in that release announcement (e.g., "Existing PDLC packs are for sale for the console version with several more on the horizon" or something like that).
 
I don't know if that really is supposed to mean explicitly support for planet zoo. Renewed support for CMS games is likely meaning all near future projects are new cms games, elsewhere in the report states frontier's main profit sources are from successful cms games which frontier has proven to be a market leader with. Planet Zoo is just being used as an example of a successful game which new projects will attract new investors.
Well… we will see soon enough and until then I choose to be positive about the possibilities of future support.
If there won’t be any I’m really ok with that too.
March updates on steam database should indicate new DLC’s anyway.
 
Well, good to know there's at least one more coming! But FY24 ends in May so... It doesn't necessarily mean it's the last one either. It could be. But they don't always read out into the next financial year so we shall see!

EDIT: They also highlight in that presentation that the two PC games are coming to consoles "in the next few months (FY24)." So yeah... Spring may be it.
 
Well, good to know there's at least one more coming! But FY24 ends in May so... It doesn't necessarily mean it's the last one either. It could be. But they don't always read out into the next financial year so we shall see!
That’s why I said “(last) FY24 PDLC”, because it’s the last one for FY24 until the next one if so.
 
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